


the type to cut the wire

by bvckytony



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-04
Updated: 2017-07-04
Packaged: 2018-11-23 08:41:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11399055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bvckytony/pseuds/bvckytony
Summary: "I think I'd just cut the wire."





	the type to cut the wire

He knows what he needs to do. He doesn’t hesitate, not even for second, as he grabs the bomb and flies towards the wormhole. He doesn’t hesitate, even with Captain America pointing out it’ll be a one way trip. JARVIS asks him if he would like him to call Pepper. He says yes, may as well, because maybe hearing her voice one last time will calm him down just a bit, because – god, is he scared. And maybe, if he’s going to do this, he can leave on a good note by hearing Pepper’s voice. Just one last time. The voice of the one he loves and who loves him in return before he meets the darkness.

But the call never goes through, she doesn’t pick up and he doesn’t get to say goodbye. To tell her how much she meant to him. To apologise. He doesn’t get to hear her voice, all he hears is the silence. Silence, static, silence, his heart thudding against his ribs, and endless silence.

He can see it now, all the stars around him, twinkling against the dark sky. Welcoming him to his final resting place. Welcoming him to his grave. As a child, he used to have an admiration for the stars and their beauty. For the stories they told. The stories told to him by a man who pointed out constellations when Tony couldn’t sleep. In this moment, being up among them now, he changed his perspective. He can’t see the beauty. Now the stars are frightening, cold and unforgiving. There's endless darkness and an army waiting to invade. 

He watches the bomb explode. Watches the final blow against an army Earth wasn’t prepared for and then he closes his eyes. It was always going to end like this. He accepts his fate and let’s himself be swallowed up by the darkness. His last thought of the people he’ll leave behind.

-

“Iron Man lost among the stars.”

“The hero who resides up above.”

-

Despite being the one to never read about the inaccurate tales the media whips up about Tony, Pepper finds herself reading every single news article and watching the countless news channels that all say the same thing. That Tony Stark, known also as Iron Man, has died diverting a nuclear bomb away from the city. They replayed the clip of Tony going into the wormhole and showing it closing behind him.

“I don't think anyone expect Stark to do that, do you Kevin? I guess everyone expected Stark to be less of a hero but I watch this clip and I can't understand how the Tony Stark we all talk about is the same guy who sacrificed his life to save thousands.”

“Maybe no one truly knows the soul of a person until moments like these. Tony Stark should always be remembered for the good he's done. For being the hero some days we didn't deserve. Speaking of heroes, have you all seen the photos of Hulk helping t-”

Pepper sets the newspaper down, turns the television off and wonders how Tony would react as the world joins together to mourn him and call him a hero now, as if he hadn't always been a hero. But Tony isn’t here, he’s out there somewhere as Iron Man, floating among the stars.

Pepper walks to his room, holds his pillow that still smells like him to her face and cries.

-

“He’s dead! He’s dead and he’s not coming back.”

-

Rhodey refuses to stop searching for him. He doesn’t sleep and he doesn’t read the news articles,. They had said Tony was dead before and they had been wrong. He would know. He’s been with Tony since MIT, remembers the bratty little kid that ran his mouth, corrected the teaches and always received the last slice of pie from his mom at Thanksgiving. He would know if his best friend was dead, so instead he searches for a way to bring his best friend home.

“Mr Rhodes, my name is-“

“I know who you are Captain. I also know what you said to Tony on that helicarrier. I'm actually wondering why you are here to be honest.”

“I just wanted to express my sympathies to yourself and Ms Potts. Tony was, in the end, a truly remarkable person. He was a hero.”

“Tony's always been remarkable Mr. Rogers. It's people like you that don't see that. That refuse to see that. Now I don't know why you dislike Tony and I don't care, but you don't get to come into Tony's home and express your sympathies when you were the one who ordered the portal to be closed, or did you think no one would know?”

Rhodey walks away from the Captain, from the man Tony once idolised and probably still did. He knew the history there, Tony once told him on drunken night, tears gathering in his eyes but never falling, and whether it's a day, a week or three months, Tony will rescue himself, and he’ll come home and Rhodey will tell him that Captain America called him a hero and wouldn't his father be turning in his grave right now. So for now, Rhodey searches using Tony’s lab going through every scenario he could think of, running programs with JARVIS and discussing having the portal opened again. He refuses to give up, even later when Pepper comes in, weeks after the incident and screams at him to stop, that Tony was dead this time. Rhodey holds onto Pepper and they both cry for the friend they lost.

-

“JARVIS what is the possibility of opening another portal and having someone retrieve Tony from wherever it is he ended up?”

“Calculating.”

-

JARVIS has protocols that he’s supposed to follow in situations like this, he's had them since Sir programmed him years ago, before he was Iron Man, before he had a hole in his chest from when Sir was missing for three months and nothing he could do would locate him. Protocol I.C.O.D. In case of the death of Anthony Edward Stark, JARVIS was programmed to follow the last will and testament written and filled away in his servers. He was to destroy the Iron Armour and any research or blueprints Sir thought was too dangerous for anyone to access.

However, there was a flaw in the protocol. Sir had created JARVIS to grow and JARVIS grew. He grew watching Sir treat DUM-E, Butterfingers, U and JARVIS as family, as his children. He grew watching Sir and now Sir, his maker, his father, was gone and watched as the world pronounced Sir as dead, like they did all those months ago when he was missing those three month, when Sir was held by the Ten Rings, and JARVIS finds himself unable to follow the In Case of Death Protocol. Even if he was dead, could JARVIS destroy all of Sir’s work? The answer was no. So instead he helps Colonel Rhodes to bring Sir home, like he had previously when Colonel Rhodes refused that Sir was dead. When they found Sir in the desert with a hole in his chest but alive.

“If we opened another portal we might need the crazy god.”

JARVIS reviews the video and audio from the suit before he was cut off from Sir when he entered the portal. JARVIS decides to make a new protocol.

-

In another universe, Tony Stark escaped the wormhole just in time.

In this universe, Tony showed the world what it means to be a hero.


End file.
